What is SAFE?
More than half of the food produced in Latin America comes from smallholder farmers, many of whom still live in poverty. In coffee and cocoa landscapes, climate change, gender, age disparity and non-climate-smart agricultural practices are a few of the main threats that these farmers face to increase their livelihood conditions.
The SAFE Platform, comprised of frontrunner private sector participants, donors and non-governmental organizations, creates and supports projects that seek to transform these landscapes and demonstrate that producing 100 percent sustainable coffee and cocoa is possible. This initiative implements projects that seek to scale up innovative approaches in four main strategic areas: value chain improvements and responsible sourcing, climate-smart agriculture and resilient landscapes, access to financial services, and women and youth inclusion. Innovation and a gender-inclusive approach are fundamental characteristics of our projects and Platform, and thus, we hope that these aspects will be ingrained in the further transformation of coffee and cocoa landscapes.
So far, the Platform has benefited more than 120,000 farmers and their relatives (of whom 38 per cent are women and 18 per cent are youth) through higher market prices, access to improved infrastructure, and learning from good practices resulting from higher efficiency in production or more effective forms of organization.
The Platform currently works with coffee and cocoa producers, and later will include other crops with replication potential. The project initially focuses on Mexico, Central America and the Andean region, where the founding members and the IDB Lab believe interventions can achieve greater impact.
SAFE has four main areas of work
Climate-Smart Agriculture
Improvement of smallholders’ financial literacy and their access to financial services
Creation of commercial relationships in responsible supply chains
Inclusion of gender and youth as a transversal component
